


we should meet in air, me and you

by valkyrierising



Category: Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (2016)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, F/M, Pre-Canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-06-27
Updated: 2016-06-27
Packaged: 2018-07-18 11:46:39
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,425
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7313998
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/valkyrierising/pseuds/valkyrierising
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The first thing he notices about Jyn Erso is that she’s got an expressive face. Her eyes pierce when she looks around the base but hones in on him quickly. It’s a skill he learned early on, the ability to blend into the shadows so easily but unobscured so as to watch. He’s very good at watching. She’s fast, most of the others on base jump when they first notice him from his place. She simply stares and tilts her head at him before returning back to Mothma.</p>
            </blockquote>





	we should meet in air, me and you

**Author's Note:**

  * For [nighimpossible](https://archiveofourown.org/users/nighimpossible/gifts).



> shoutout to twitter crew who's had to deal with me screaming about jyn/cassian being a thing since the first trailer dropped. it's way too early to be writing fic but that hasn't stopped me. 
> 
> edit 12/16/2016: this was absolutely the best case scenario that I knew we weren't gonna get but goddamn.

The first thing he notices about Jyn Erso is that she’s got an expressive face. Her eyes pierce when she looks around the base but hones in on him quickly. It’s a skill he learned early on, the ability to blend into the shadows so easily but unobscured so as to watch. He’s very good at watching. She’s fast, most of the others on base jump when they first notice him from his place. She simply stares and tilts her head at him before returning back to Mothma.

 

He is weary, she thinks when her gaze drags through the room to his. He looks up, betraying nothing as Mon Mothma and her lackey are chewing her out. He’s too … still, compared to the constant motion of the rebel base she’s been escorted to. Hell, even her personal audience with Mothma is sequestered off but still full of noise. A war room, she places as she tears her look away from the officer behind Mothma and listens to their spiel.  

 

The second thing he notices when she walks in is her bluster. A vaguely irritated expression on her face reveals nothing besides annoyance. She is small but her attitude and the defiant edge by all her words note her taller than anyone. As well as rage. He senses rage; hidden, but there as she lifts her chin and responds, “Yes sir.”

 

He lets out a quiet huff, part amusement as she’s escorted out to another section of their base. Jyn Erso can make or break their mission.

 

+++

 

He’s read about her, Mon Mothma giving him everything they could find on the Erso woman. He was placed into the team to find the Death Star plans for his seniority and partially how he can command respect. If they knew how surly she was going to be, of course they wouldn’t let anyone else who’d threaten a fight with her. The goal was to recruit her as the perfect infiltrator, in exchange they would use whatever resources they had to help find her father. They have resources she cannot access, and she’s their in to get the plans for the Death Star with no ties to the Imperial Forces or the Rebellion. She can do what other members cannot. A free agent. He smirks a bit as he reads the file that details the many stolen possessions, the forged Imperial documents, and multiple arrests and resists Jyn’s gotten up to. A tried and true rebel, he imagines, the number one reason she’s been picked is because her father is being searched for by everyone. He’s there to make sure Erso doesn’t go off script. Their mission relies on layers upon layers of subterfuge, and the Imperial Army believing her would leave them only a tight window to steal the plans and get out.

 

Erso prowls the Rebel base like a curious cat, questioning everyone and learning. The base is ambivalent towards her, but glad for another person to take on the mission. She learns about the people, about everything that is needed before she drifts towards him one day. Erso pours over the notes he has around his shoulder, the nearness feeling like a bit like an electric charge. The next day she doesn’t check his shoulder but meets his eyes, pointing to the blueprints, “What’s the plan, captain?”

 

A slight curve of his lips betrays him, barely, but he feels Jyn lean in closer to him as he explains.

 

+++

 

Ghosts seem to haunt him in his sleep. He shakes the ridiculous thought as he gets up from his bed. It’s not ghosts. It’s the feeling of losing so many in a war that seems to have been stacked against them that drags him down. His sleep schedule’s been fucked for a while, and the nice part about the base is that there’s constant movement. At night though, it’s a little more quiet but still there; the heartbeat of the base slower. The light is set a little brighter in the hallways, he sees a figure in the middle.

 

He moves closer, sees Jyn sprawled against the door to her room, tinkering with something. She looks up as he approaches, dragging herself up against the door to make way for him. They don’t say anything, taking a place besides her and evening out his breathing. Some nights all he needs is the presence of another, and no one better than Jyn since he doesn’t have to walk further.

 

“Captain,” she says, a few beats later, “everything...okay?” He opens his eyes, looks at Jyn. Her eyebrow quirks up, looking back at him. He closes them, leans back and lets her continue on with what she’s doing.

 

A few seconds pass, and he can feel the gears inside Jyn work out why he’s there. “Cassian.”

 

“Hm?”

 

“You can call me Cassian.” She stops her tinkering once more, and looks at him. Really looks, sees the exhaustion etched on his face. The light brown of her eyes seem endless as they stare, he could get lost in them. He leans his head back and closes his eyes, letting the quiet hum of the base and Jyn’s steady breathing ease him.

 

They do this a few more times, Cassian finds Jyn. Sometimes he tells her stories about his childhood, on Yavin 4. She tells him about her father, the man who taught her to take things apart and rebuild them. It’s funny, he thinks, that Mothma put him as lead because of their combination. Of course Jyn’s all leap no look, but he’d been there. He’s more of the bow to her arrow, ready aim and fire. She has an opposite effect on him than the others as he finds himself orbiting her. There’s something peaceful about the storm within Jyn, a calming monsoon. The sweetness of her face a contrast to the way she is, the wariness in which she holds herself away from others.

 

+++

 

He supposes it was only a matter of time before he and Jyn slipped up. What he didn’t realize is that it would end with a dozen stormtroopers hot on their heels.

 

She’s got a manic grin on her face and he doesn’t even know why but he grins back, amusement and irritation and _vexation_ warring inside him as they lose the troopers.

 

She’ll get them killed before they can even finish. She burns hot and bright, an endless series of explosions, that he can’t help but get nearer and nearer each time. They make an odd pairing the two of them. He’s certain Mothma regrets this plan.

 

+++

 

Jyn, for lack of a better term, is a half cocked blaster, always ready to go. That isn’t to say her reconnaissance skills aren’t terrible per se, but she’s always ready for a brawl. Mon Mothma simply clucks in disapproval when they return and he can’t help but suppress a smile at her pleased demeanor.

 

“I got my end done didn’t I?” She says, the defiant streak in her begging for Mothma to say something. He presses his side against hers, the defiance building up within her slowly coming down. For all the bravado, he senses that she wants some recognition. It’s just been tightly coiled and bottled inside.

 

“Erso,” he calls to her as she storms off, the people parting for them. “Jyn!” She halts, anger radiating off her. She meets his eyes dead on, daring him to do, what exactly? He doesn’t know just extends a hand to her. “You did good,” he says and she deflates, _slightly_. The anger doesn’t dissipate but she’s calmed down, a breath he didn’t know she was holding let out. She smiles, a slight upward quirk of her lips. He’s riveted by the image of leaning forward and kissing her. She says nothing, holding his hand in hers. She squeezes it and leaves, going to her room or the break area, he’s not entirely sure. He can feel the squeeze on his hand like a burn, feels it long after she’s gone.

 

+++

 

The mission is a group effort but Erso’s the one going in alone to do the infiltration and this bothers him, a lot more now. It’s an itch under his skin he can’t seem to find relief from. He doesn’t like leaving one of his own on their own but he knows Jyn would bristle, snort at his protectiveness. She seems to sense it, as he finishes briefing their new additions Baze and Chirrut and turning to leave for his room. He won’t sleep, but he’ll meditate, try not to think of the mission or of Jyn, block out how soft her lips would feel or how she’d feel against him.

 

“Cassian Andor,” she says, pushing herself in between him and his door. “If you don’t tell me what’s wrong I swear I’ll make your days hell until you let me know what’s bothering at you.”

 

He looks sidelong at the group of people who are gathering at the end of the hallway, raising his eyebrow at her. Jyn raises an eyebrow back, rolling her eyes while she opens the door to his quarters and dragging him inside.

 

“It’s nothing Erso. Go get yourself ready,” he says softly. Jyn sits herself on the chair of his room, legs sprawled as he steps around them, feeling her eyes on him as he pulls his jacket off. She doesn’t say anything as he leans back against the wall, shuts his eyes until he feels her sit on his side, making herself comfortable and shuts her eyes. They stay together for a few minutes until she gets up. She says nothing, sliding off the bed when he feels her hands squeezing his knee. He doesn’t know why but he puts his own hand down, on top of hers. She pulls in closer, pressing her cheek against his and they stay like that for another few minutes, breathing in sync. She leaves and again, the feeling of her lingers like a phantom that refuses to leave. He’s in too deep before he even knew where he was.

 

+++

 

Rook drops them off as close as is possible before they send Jyn off. He lingers in the ship a bit longer, Baze and Chirrut taking to her far more quickly than anyone on base. He’s pretty certain their personalities, the utter recklessness of each them endears them to one another. She stands in the center for a bit longer, giving him one last lingering look as he steps closer to hand her the comms. The proximity and the situation make him seriously consider the possibility of leaning in and kissing her but decides against it. He thinks she’d probably slap him for causing her a distraction right before the mission. He doesn’t know what to say besides “don’t die” and doesn’t expect one of her rarer smiles.

 

“Yes sir,” and leaves.

 

They give her comms, to be used when she finally has the plans to pick her up but the radio silence unnerves him. He’s become accustomed to her, her presence a constant that to not feel that, startles him. She’s going to be okay, he knows this, Erso would be okay. He can’t stop the worry that knots inside of him however, that threatens his composure.

 

Jyn’s going to be fine; she has to be.

 

+++

 

He feels the air shift - the beach sky darkening in preparation, the eeriness surrounding them all. The Imperial Forces ready themselves against their handful of ones and he keeps an eye out for Jyn. Stormtroopers take aim and he cannot keep his watch, joins the others to fend them off.

 

She nears their ship, breakneck speed and he alerts others to cover her. It happens so fast, the overwhelming noise of blasters around them. He almost misses her, everything rushing into focus as Jyn takes a blaster to the side. A loud cursing and she falls. He didn’t know he was already running towards her.

 

“What did I say about not dying?” He says as he picks her up where she’d fallen. He motions for Baze to look out for them, getting to the ship. Takes a goddamn stray blaster hit, wouldn’t that be her luck, just as they were in the clear. Rook pilots like a madman, which is understandable, but difficult as he holds onto Jyn and gets on board without harming her. The plans are strapped to her back, her arm holding her side together as she hisses when the ship jostles.

 

“I’d say it was a bloody terrible command. Don’t get soft on me,” she bosses him from her place in his arms. He doesn’t know what to do besides press the kiss that’s been building inside against her. She uses the hand not holding her side together and digs it into his hair. She opens her lips quickly, hungrily, teeth clacking together as he holds onto her and her to him. It feels like what he imagined and then some, Jyn pulling him in closer and deepening their kiss before a throat clearing interrupts. Baze stands there, holding the medical supplies and tosses them besides them. He mutters something, leaving while Jyn grins and nudges at the medical supplies with her leg.

 

“Finally,” she says as he lifts her to a seated position. “We can do that when I’m not bleeding out though.”

 

She slips an arm around him to help stand up, while he lifts the edge of her shirt up to clean up the wound. She shivers slightly, leaning closer into him as much as possible as he finishes the dressing on the wound. They press their cheeks together, breathing in sync once more as Rook gets them to the base.

 

+++

 

Mothma raises an eyebrow at the two of them, Cassian holding her up while Jyn thrusts the plans on the war table.

 

“My end is done,” she says. Cassian helps her back towards her room, setting her down on her bed. Sighing, she closes her eyes as he positions her sitting up and checks the wound. She puts a finger under his chin, leaning in closer for a kiss, her lips soft against his. He brings a hand to her cheek, holding her as he leads their kiss, going in deeper. They break, breaths intermingling

 

“Don’t go,” she requests, but it comes off more as a question.

 

“I won’t,” he says, taking a seat besides her. She fits underneath his chin as he presses her closer, feeling a little bit closer to peace than he has in a while.


End file.
